The Brave

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't get this out of my head
Review: I am not a fan of Gregory McDonald's lighter fiction. I always thought it was trivial and not entertaining enough to bother with. This book, however, touched such a nerve that I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks after I read it. It is a HARD book, in the sense that the feelings it evokes are deep and visceral. I found that I wanted to put the book down frequently, just as when watching something terrible about to happen to an unsuspecting victim one might want to avert the eyes to avoid seeing the ugliness that is sure to come.

This is a powerful and heartfelt book. I can only speculate at what would make an author whose fiction is usually fluff attempt a book with such a potent and tragic theme, but he has carried it out with great skill. No one who reads this can come away unscathed.

Rating:
Summary: Johnny Depp's "The Brave"
Review: Is a masterpiece! It can be found on DVD on Ebay for reasonable prices. Not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Left me horrified and speechless
Review: Not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.
I picked it up while browsing at a bookstore. I didn't "get" what it was about until it was too late. I had never heard of snuff films before and this was a very rude awakening. After I ran to the restroom to throw up (no kidding) I had to skim the book to see how it ended. I was disappointed at the tragic, sad ending. I cried. I was appalled to find out that human beings could do such awful things to one another. This book was a real shocker for me and I am actually sorry I ever picked it up, because those vivid memories have never left me. Had I understood what the subject matter was, maybe I wouldn't have mistakenly subjected myself to those ideas.
There is enough evil in the world already- I advise you to leave this book alone and find something more uplifting. If you miss this book, it is no big loss. If you read it, don't complain about the emotional trauma you experience, because you have been warned, and once you read it you cannot undo the damage. If you have ANY kind of depression do NOT read this book!! It is beyond sad, beyond tragic. It is truly sickening and wrenching.

Rating:
Summary: A startling surprise!
Review: The usually fast-paced, light-on-his-feet, full of sarcasm McDonald undergoes a complete transformation here. After FLETCH, FLYNN and their offspring, I would never have expected such a wrenching and UNHAPPY book to come from this writer. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy McDonald's work. I stumbled across this book in a remainder bin and snapped it up. Read it basically in one sitting at an airport...it's a slight book, like all his others.

It is indeed wrenching. As others have said, the chapter running down the horror's our hero will endure prior to being "snuffed" on film is horrific. McDonald succeeds in making us see the world through the eyes of this EXTREMELY simple man...a man for whom life has not held any pleasure in a long, long time. We realize, even as our protagonist does not, that his family isn't going to get all the money they've been promised. His tiny glimmers of hope for a better life WILL NOT COME TO PASS, and that's the real tragedy of the story. We can almost understand how he could lay down his life for his family, with the hope of providing them something better. But to understand that this hope will be in vain and that his family will be WORSE off after he's gone makes the story almost unbearable.

There's another scene that sticks with you. The producers of the film give the Brave (he's got Indian blood...hence he's a "brave"), a little bit of money in advance, and he takes the family on a painful shopping trip to a bargain department store (like a Wal-Mart). For them, it's like giving us $10,000 bucks to spend at the Mall of the Americas. But imagine spending that money knowing you will be tortured to death soon!!!

This is not an easy book. But I can pretty much guarantee you won't have read anything like it before. I can't imagine what inspired McDonald to write a book with such a wretched world view (the life of poverty he describes for The Brave and his cohorts is squalid beyond belief), but for a few hours, we're sucked into it nonetheless. Give the book a try, if you can find it, but keep it away from the kids!!

(By the way, Johnny Depp made his directorial debut with the film version of THE BRAVE. Apparently the movie was awful...not worth a release, even. It goes for very high prices on ebay now. I'd love to see it!)

Rating:
Summary: A startling surprise!
Review: The usually fast-paced, light-on-his-feet, full of sarcasm McDonald undergoes a complete transformation here. After FLETCH, FLYNN and their offspring, I would never have expected such a wrenching and UNHAPPY book to come from this writer. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy McDonald's work. I stumbled across this book in a remainder bin and snapped it up. Read it basically in one sitting at an airport...it's a slight book, like all his others.

It is indeed wrenching. As others have said, the chapter running down the horror's our hero will endure prior to being "snuffed" on film is horrific. McDonald succeeds in making us see the world through the eyes of this EXTREMELY simple man...a man for whom life has not held any pleasure in a long, long time. We realize, even as our protagonist does not, that his family isn't going to get all the money they've been promised. His tiny glimmers of hope for a better life WILL NOT COME TO PASS, and that's the real tragedy of the story. We can almost understand how he could lay down his life for his family, with the hope of providing them something better. But to understand that this hope will be in vain and that his family will be WORSE off after he's gone makes the story almost unbearable.

There's another scene that sticks with you. The producers of the film give the Brave (he's got Indian blood...hence he's a "brave"), a little bit of money in advance, and he takes the family on a painful shopping trip to a bargain department store (like a Wal-Mart). For them, it's like giving us $10,000 bucks to spend at the Mall of the Americas. But imagine spending that money knowing you will be tortured to death soon!!!

This is not an easy book. But I can pretty much guarantee you won't have read anything like it before. I can't imagine what inspired McDonald to write a book with such a wretched world view (the life of poverty he describes for The Brave and his cohorts is squalid beyond belief), but for a few hours, we're sucked into it nonetheless. Give the book a try, if you can find it, but keep it away from the kids!!

(By the way, Johnny Depp made his directorial debut with the film version of THE BRAVE. Apparently the movie was awful...not worth a release, even. It goes for very high prices on ebay now. I'd love to see it!)